PRSSA Guest Speaker: Pete Codella

Pete Codella, winner of the 2014 Professional Communicator of the Year Award, spoke to our Weber State University PRSSA chapter on March 23, 2015. Codella is currently the director of marketing and communications at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. A professional in the world of digital public relations, Codella is also an Accredited Public Relations Professional (APR) and recently received his Master of Business Administration degree.

Codella spoke a great deal about branding yourself through social media. He encouraged us to be thought leaders. Part of branding ourselves is to gain followers and have an online presence. We were encouraged to use Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. One interesting item I took away is that in this day and age our personal and business lives are molded into one. We need to always be our professional selves because if we post any type of photo or phrase online it will be found. Codella spoke about balancing our lives. This can be tricky due to smart phones and how we take our business home. We need to find a balance or it can lead to us feeling burnt out and not enjoying our lives.

Codella also spoke about going back to school to get a master’s degree. He felt like this would help in the professional world and would be more fluent when speaking with C-level and other departments in business. He said he was a believer in having the public relations professionals working alongside others who hold a corporate title. This allows for greater continuity within the business. Codella spoke about being able to manage WordPress. This will allow the PR professional to work with a company website. Most of the business world uses WordPress when building a website.

Lastly, he spoke about giving back. He referenced the Road Home in Salt Lake City as something that he has enjoyed being a part of. I thought this was great in seeing the human side of Pete Codella. It was not all strictly business talk. He told us to love what we do. Codella was a great speaker that helped us gain a better knowledge of what PR professionals do and what tools they use.

– See more at: http://www.weberstateprssa.com/prssa-guest-speaker-pete-codella/#sthash.4BkWyd08.dpuf

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